Famed for creating high-quality Dungeons & Dragons accessories, in 2021, Beadle and Grimm’s branched out into the world of MTG. Creating a line of accessories to go alongside Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Beadle and Grimm’s released a smorgasbord of goodies. So many, in fact, that a bundle containing it all will set you back $499!
Since that first groundbreaking release, Beadle and Grimm’s has been an infrequent appearance within MTG’s release calendar. Creating accessory bundles for Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and Phyrexia: All Will Be One, MTG players are typically delighted by the themed goodies. This is certainly the reaction to Beadle and Grimm’s latest bundle which celebrates all things Wilds of Eldraine.
Gorgeous Gingerbread Goodies
During the latest Weekly MTG livestream, Beadle and Grimm’s officially debuted their latest product; the Wilds of Eldraine Token Set. As the rather descriptive name gives away, this Wilds of Eldraine-focused product features an assortment of gingerbread-themed tokens. Specifically, within the new bundle, there is a life counter, actual counters, dice, and some cards too.
When looking at that short list of products, initially, you may be rather underwhelmed by Beadle and Grimm’s latest offerings. Thankfully, however, there’s still plenty of reason to be excited as these tokens are absolutely gorgeous. Heavily themed around Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, each token is not only adorable but also made of metal too!
While metal life counters and +1/+1 counters aren’t anything new, there is one very exciting edition; Role Tokens. In case you’ve never heard of them, Role Tokens are brand-new for Wilds of Eldraine and they look rather weird… Similar to Flip Cards, Wizards’ Role Tokens are each two tokens in one to save space. While this is effective, honestly, it doesn’t look that appealing.
Thankfully, Beadle and Grimm’s have provided the solution to this aesthetic faux pas by creating full art tokens. While this may sound like a small detail, we’re nonetheless enamored with the look of these metal tokens. The only downside is that there are seven of these cards per bundle. Thanks to this, blinging out your entire deck may get rather expensive.
Speaking of expensive, that’s one thing that the Wilds of Eldraine Token Set isn’t too bad about. Previously, Beadle and Grimm’s products have sold for an astonishing amount of money. Their new tokens, however, are only $40! That’s downright reasonable considering the price that some MTG tokens go for!
Beautiful but Not Entirely Beloved
Upon seeing the Wilds of Eldraine Token Set from Beadle and Grimm’s, many MTG players were understandably excited. On Twitter, for instance, @linuscalling stated “You have a grown man saying ‘adorbs’ for the first time. This is too adorbs not to order. Fantastic!” Meanwhile, on Reddit, u/Approximation_Doctor commented “Please convince me not to.” Taking this as a challenge, many Reddit users did just that.
First and foremost, as many would-be purchasers quickly discovered, while the Token Set is cheap shipping is not. MTG players in the UK, for instance, are slapped with a £24 ($30) shipping fee. While this isn’t uncommon for products being shipped overseas, it’s nonetheless expensive, almost doubling the original cost.
While this shipping is a major, if unavoidable, problem, it is a comparatively minor issue. Currently, Beadle and Grimm’s doesn’t have a lot of goodwill within the MTG community. This is thanks to the previous bundle, Behold New Phyrexia, not having shipped yet. Originally, this bundle was announced in early February of this year.
Following its original February announcement, it reportedly took until late July to see a physical sample of the product. While this should have been good news, according to u/qrqwqrqrq on Reddit, purchasers weren’t happy with what was showcased. Rather than being appropriately flawless for $135, the exclusive Phyrexian-themed deck box had obvious flaws in the paint.
Since seeing the first production sample of the deck box, purchasers have unfortunately been left waiting once again. Currently, the release date for the product is stated as “September 2023” on Beadle and Grimm’s website, however, players aren’t optimistic about that date being achieved.
Thanks to this past, or rather ongoing debacle, MTG players are unsurprisingly wary of the new token set.
Lesson Learned
While the production of Behold New Phyrexia has left much to be desired, it seems Beadle and Grimm’s have learned their lesson. As, for the Wilds of Eldraine Token Set, everything has been pre-produced and is ready to ship. Should the shipping gods be on your side, this means you can get these tokens even ahead of Wilds of Eldraine’s Prerelease weekend!
Acknowledging this learning process, co-founder of Beadle and Grimm’s, Matthew Lillard, spoke during the recent Weekly MTG. “One of the things that we’ve found is that each box, each drop, for us we’ve learned a lot. We’ve listened a lot to the community. […] The idea of building in the space and trying to create high-end premium accessories for players means a lot to us as a company.”
From this statement, hopefully, Beadle and Grimm’s won’t make the mistakes seen in Behold New Phyrexia once again. As, even if the product is gorgeous and fantastic, no one wants to be stuck waiting. The new Wilds of Eldraine Token Set is obviously a good showcase of this improvement. For better or worse, however, we’ll have to wait until the next product to see if the lesson has actually been learned.
Last but not least, in case tokens aren’t your thing, Beadle and Grimm’s is also releasing a Wilds of Eldraine hoodie, priced at $75. If this hoodie, or the tokens, sell out before you can purchase them, worry not, as Beadle and Grimm’s is also turning up at MagicCon: Las Vegas. Here, Beadle and Grimm’s will have 200 reserved units they can sell even if everything on the website is sold out.
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